The Aft end disco in the saloon

Queen Elizabeth sailing from Southampton

Heading North

We on our way back to Glasgow having completed all the River Thames'
sailings and a one day sail around the Solent. That is almost all of
the cruises finished for this year, apart from two this weekend, so we
need to get back home to the North and the ship's winter lay-up berth.
One of the evening trips in London was for 688 passengers, all about
20'ish in age and quite affluent, they danced the evening away as we
chugged down to the Thames tidal barrier, turned and crept back up
again at dead slow most of the way. The dining saloon and forward bar
were converted into "discos" and there were speakers out on deck to
convey the beat to those out there, taking the night air. A lovely
bunch of people, really pleasant and when they left at 11:00 they were
all off to a night club to continue to 5 in the morning. What
surprised me was how much they had drunk yet appeared to be relatively
sober, in 3 hours the two bars on board took nearly £11,000. The
discarded bottles of beer, wine and champagne that were left
everywhere showed that. The young man who organises this has found
sponsors in Rizla cigarette papers, who hand out free product as the
passengers boarded. Not sure that we should be advocating smoking, in
particular the extra-long ones that they make, for rolling elongated
cigarettes?
For the last day on the river we finished off at Tower Pier, right
beside the Tower of London and a film crew boarded to set up their
cameras for filming the next morning. We set off and at 7:00am we
were in place bouncing around off the white chalk cliffs of Dover.
Unfortunately despite the weather being lovely and clear for the
sunrise there was a strong Force 7 wind blowing about 25 to 30 knots
which kicked up quite a swell with waves so we were rocking and
rolling about. A helicopter had been organised to take pictures of us
with the rising sun and the cliffs in the background and while this
was going on the crew on board were taking pictures of the cliffs
using 7 cameras strapped onto the back of the ship, on the poop deck.
The film crew were scheduled to join us by boat in two lots, but after
the first three guys just managed to get on board the next lot didn't
manage it, as the seas were high and it had become too dangerous to
come alongside to allow them to climb on board. The helicopter pilot
has nerves of steel with the low swooping shots that he did along the
deck of the ship which had us all ducking down as he screamed across.
While that was going on the guys on the back end of the ship were
having terrible problems with the spray getting onto their lenses,
they had to be kept covered in plastic bags right up to the last
minute before shooting. This all went on for about three hours until
they were happy with the results. You will have to look out for the
next Sherlock Holmes film to see the outcome, I gather we will be
right at the end of the film and it all involves a handkerchief, which
was filmed 6 times being thrown to the wind. No actors were on board,
they will be included at a later date after having been filmed in a
studio and overlaid onto the scenes by magic! Or computer really, but
magic is better.
The next day we were in Southampton to do a cruise following the
maiden voyage of the latest Cunard cruise liner Queen Elizabeth. We
were fully booked and nature played its part by giving us a lovely
warm sunny day. The ship sailed and we along with a multitude of
small craft and various ferries followed on behind. This time we were
blessed by a setting sun with the ship in the foreground, I say ship
they all tend to look like blocks of flats because of the desire to
have as many ship side cabins as possible, but still I would swap
places with the Mate on there.
Our passage North has been very peaceful and Cape Horn Lands End was
no problem at all. Youtube link As I write this we are passing the South end of
Arran and the lights of Glasgow are being reflected off the clouds.
Home tomorrow and back to normal.